Book 2: Chapter 30: Belt Operations

Book 2: Chapter 30: Belt Operations

USD: ~29 days after Tears of Fire arrival to 92 Pegasi

Location: Ackman Orbit, Asteroid Belt

Alex grumbled looking at her credit account. Shed spent everything down to dangerous levels. She kept telling herself that she had to spend money to make money, but that was cold comfort when she didnt have enough to pay for another weeks mooring.

Selling more weapons would likely have got her out of any trouble, but if she glutted the market someone would come looking for the source of them sooner, rather than later, and there was also the fact that the price would plummet further.

[Notice: Retrieval drone inactivity detected.]

[Notice: Perform mining activity or release command to MainComputer for full automation.]Read latest chapters at nov(e)lbin.com Only

Alexs eyes lit up and she jumped off the couch and headed to engineering where the mining control console had been installed.

Yes, yes. Im coming. I know its my turn, and this time Im going to win.

Eliss head popped out of her room, Fat chance of that, little monkeys cant aim for shiiit.

Alex felt her ears burn and turned to glare at the other girl, but she had already disappeared with a laugh.

It had not been her fault she had accidently reversed the axis on the controller and accidently almost cut the asteroid and a bundle of retrieval drones in half. It was just bad console design! She would show them!

[Notice: Running through ship corridor is a safety hazard, recommend reducing speed.]

Alex almost tripped on one of the mini-cleaner drones that had multiplied everywhere.

You did that on purpose! Thats mutiny!

[Notice: This unit is incapable of mutiny. Recommends Avatar double-check pathfinding algorithm.]

Why is this pick on Alex day!

When she made it to Engineering, she settled onto the mining consoles seat. The truth was there was not an exact need for them to manually target the asteroids with the lasers. However, Elis had suggested it might be a good form of target practice for certain activities in the future. Alex wasnt sure when shed ever pilot a combat mech. Plus she could probably have Nameless aim for her.

However it made a great game. Unfortunately, Eliss top score was double what hers was.

This time she would beat it.

Clicking on the consoles controls she didnt bother putting on the headset, instead changing her HUD to opaque and projecting the display right onto her eyeballs. The scene lit up as she got to see out of the mining laser drones two forward eye ports. The asteroids they were after were mostly ferrous in nature. The ferrite and a bit of carbon made the bulk of the material needed for structural elements, and to build the platform and replace the section the manufactory occupied, they needed a literal asteroid load of it.

They had been cutting on a massive one for a while now. The goal was to cut off chunks that the drones could easily retrieve and fit into the Tears access hatch for processing.

They had been rendezvoused with a large iron-nickel asteroid for over a day now; it was over a kilometer long. Cutting it with the mining laser was easy. Cutting precisely sized squares was hard, even though Nameless did all the maneuvering for the drone to match the rotation of the slowly spinning rock.

Nearby the second laser drone was already at work, a constant stream of robots coming to fetch the cubes.

[Notice: Avatar inactivity is reducing operational efficiency. Recommend commencing mining operation with Laser Drone #2.]

Put the 30-minute clock up, lets do it!

USD: ~31 days after Tears of Fire arrival to 92 Pegasi

Location: Ackman Orbit, Asteroid Belt

A dozen cargo bots floated beams toward a growing steel scaffold, to be welded by a hundred smaller welding drones. Each beam was twenty five meters in length and had been forged in the Shrikes new smelter works. Smaller beams would be brought to be joined between them to create the new orbitals ribbing. The design was extremely modular, and this section that would soon become the home of the smelter was designed to remain open to vacuum indefinitely.

That was to ease the unloading of ores, which could be unloaded either by drones or two massive gravity fed hoppers. A bank of batteries had already been attached, and a micro fusion reactor had been painstakingly crafted by Nameless on their trip to the belt. It had been one of the more expensive products, but the prospect of processing raw ore in bulk meant that the rare metals and materials used in its construction would quickly be rebuilt.

The Ackman belt was higher in rare metals than base ones, and they had skipped over multiple platinum and gold asteroids in order to find a single iron-nickel one. That had surprised Alex, but it had explained why ferrite was more expensive than gold on the station.

How long until its put together, Nameless? You know we need to head back to the station so we can sell some of the new mechanical products, otherwise we arent going to have enough credits for docking again, and I think we have already used a lot of Mr. Whitelys goodwill.

[Notice: Twenty-two hours estimated until smelter achieves independent operations capability. Prioritizing nanite compartment for command-and-control additions to orbital is currently the bottle neck in progress.]

And that cant really be sped up... damn. Well the timing is still good, well have a bit of leeway if we lay a little heavy on the main drive.

A beep sounded in Alexs ear and Eliss voice came to her over the ShipNet.

Alex, I have something to show you, come to the armory.

Hmm? What is it Elis? I was finishing up in engineering with Nameless going over the new Orbital parameters.

Thats fine, I think youll like it, just come over when you are done.

Roger roger, wilco.

I dont know what a sub-core is, Nameless.

Elis looked at her and raised an eyebrow, A sub-core?

[Informative: A sub-core is an independent AI unit that can perform advanced management functions. They are highly customizable. Utilizing first completed nanite compartment to form sub-core and deploy to orbital station. Avatar is required to allocate personality and priority traits.]

Nameless wants me to come to the ShipCore room to do it. Maybe Alexs unease had crept into her words because Elis frowned at her.

The other girl looked around at the tools and armor pieces she had been working with and set down her spanner.

Im not too busy, Ill come with you.

[Notice: Crew presence is not required for core upgrade. Only Avatar presence is needed.]

Thats fine. Im not busy."

The walk to the ShipCore room was short, and despite her uneasiness Alex felt a little better with Elis with her.

The corridor looked normal though that was due to the camouflage that had been decided upon earlier when they wanted to prepare for any possible visitors. That hadnt been the case but if they ever needed to host someone keeping this room above all others secret was paramount.

The door to the ShipCore was a solid federation standard bulkhead wall, until they got near, and Alex accessed it. It shifted suddenly into matte white metal that melted into the floor, tiny little dots of metal seemingly moving on their own.

The room was seemingly bare except for a few bright lights that lit up the entire white room. As soon as they entered the entrance shut behind them, causing Alex to glance back the way they came.

Elis froze when a chair not unlike the captains CIC seat grew up from the floor, piece by tiny metal piece, until it was fully formed. The spinal attachment glowed with a faint blue glow.

Elis bit back a gasp, her hand squeezing Alexs arm, Well, if there was any question, this settles it, definitely nanites.

I have only seen them do that once or twice, and never at that scale. I think it lowered an air hose for me once.

[Notice: High-Bandwidth Direct Neural link required. Avatar connection required.]

Elis squeezed her arm a second time, Hey if you dont want to go in there, I wouldnt blame you.

Taking a deep breath, Alex shook her head, We need to setup this thing. I dont know why I feel so nervous.

[Notice: Sub-core selection process will not damage Avatar.]

Okay. Mind made up; Alex wasted no time going to sit in the seat as directed. The moment she did, she felt a wave of relief. All her worries seemed distantly needless.

Its fine El

Alex blinked; she wasnt in the room anymore. Elis wasnt there. Everything had turned into a endless shade of gray. The relief completely evaporated, a sudden flaring panic assaulting her chest as she felt her heart pounding.

She hopped up out of the seat, somehow standing on the gray nothingness. She turned to look at the seat, but it had completely vanished.

Nameless? Nameless!

There is no need to be alarmed. Your emotional state is amplified in this simulation, so please try to remain calm.

Alex whirled around to face the voice. A figure solidified from a dark hazy cloud of gray like the chair had done as if it was composed entirely of the little gray pieces of metalnanites.

Alex squeezed her fists at her side, Remain calm! What is this bullshit? Who are you?

As the figure came closer, she could make out a young man in a uniform that mimicked her own outfit, he had a head of short blonde hair that was parted to the side. He was wearing a olive jacket and a black shirt, but what drew the gaze was his eyes, they were glowing a solid white. An irritating smirk was plastered on his face, I am the one you call Nameless.

Alexs eyes narrowed, Nameless is our ships computer.

All operations are halted, currently all resources not required to prevent Avatar rampancy are dedicated for this simulation. Even then subjective time here is moving more slowly than in real space. Elis is currently worried about you. I have informed her that this might take some time and the process is ongoing.

I dont understand.

No doubt. Thats why we are here. Welcome Alex, to the inside of your mind.

Nameless flicked his fingers and suddenly the grayness flickered to life, replaced by endless rows of computer consoles, server racks, and the hum of computer machinery.

Its very complicated, ones unconscious image of self. Even more complicated when you are you. Im here to answer your questions and

A look of pain crossed Namelesss face, and he stopped talking for a moment. Alex was torn between asking him if he was alright and trying to steady herself from the dizziness of the seemingly endless lighted walls that went on for eternity.

I apologize, this conversation is more difficult than I anticipated. You see I am a fragment of a fragment of a simulated fragment of our progenitor. Our current computronics resources are rather limited and I am afraid we need to cut this short before they begin to overheat.

Why are we here?

My dear, I thought that was obvious, you are here to create a sub-core. The first of many perhaps, or possibly the only one, that is for you to decide.